MDOC sets closure date for Standish Max, 80 – 90 people could be laid off

STANDISH — A not so happy Halloween for Standish — Oct. 31 was announced as the official date to close Standish Max on Tuesday.

“We fiscally can’t afford to keep it open,” said Department of Corrections Public Information Officer Russ Marlan. “It was costing us $2.7 million per month to keep it open.

“The closure date is set for Oct. 31.”

According to Marlan, between 80 and 90 employees working at SMF and the bumping facilities may be laid off, as others are expected to retire or be transferred elsewhere.

The prospect of keeping the prison operating with its current staff — taking in Pennsylvania inmates to reduce overcrowding — is still a possibility, Marlan said, adding that if a the state’s proposal to house Pennsylvania inmates in Standish Max (as well as in a Muskegon prison) is accepted before Oct. 31, the prison could still remain operational.

Also, the Guantanamo Bay possibility, which would not retain current officers, is still looming.

“We’re still viable in that picture, so maybe all I can do is hope something comes that way for us,” said Standish City Manager Mike Moran.

Marlan says the Oct. 31 date was targeted to give human resources employees with the MDOC time to move employees and inmates.

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Prisoners are NOT being released early. They have all served their minimum sentence, and most have served beyond their minimum sentence. Michigan prisoners serve an average of 128% of their court imposed sentence, higher than many other states. It is one of the reasons we have such a high cost of corrections.

Prisoners get released after serving their minimum sentence IF they had good behavior. In these cases the DOC is overlooking and and erasing bad behavior reports to make these prisoners appear to have been model prisoners worthy of early release.

Sorry you were misinformed, but time off for good behavior was eliminated in the 80's. In Michigan we have 'Truth in Sentencing'. The Parole Board does take into account the prisoner's behavior while they were incarcerated, if they had 'tickets' and so on, but to say they are "overlooking and erasing bad behavior" is quite a bold statement. It's simply not true. The Parole Board now has more accurate information and specialized assessments than they have ever had before. They are in a better than ever position to make judgement on granting paroles. In August of this year, a study was released by CAPPS (Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending). It looked at 76,000 Michigan parole decisions between 1986 and 1999. The study concludes that denying parole when prisoners become eligible for parole does very little to reduce crime rates.

It is important to remain positive when engaging offenders returning to our communities. We have people returning, we always have and we always will; as most people we cannot lock up forever. The good news is that they have had the advantage of receiving evidenced-based treatment while incarcerated. It is the people on the outside who have the power to keep them on a positive track.

There are over 40,000 people incarcerated in Michigan. Most of them are not rapists just idiots who did something ignorant. The overcrowding is happening at the level I prisons. We are feeding, housing and providing free medical care to idiots who should be kicked out and told to work for a living like the rest of us.

The prisons are not overcrowded. The state decided to close prisons to save money. They are using what is called MPRI (michigan prisoner release initiative) as a way to do it. The inmates go through a couple of classes and then the state pays their room and board for 6 months as long as they turn in 30 applications a month. There is a motel in Bay City that has 6 CSC (criminal Sexual Conduct) inmates on parole in it. There is one in Grand Rapids that at last report had 20 in it. The inmates are on the sex offender list and you can look them up for yourself. They are also on parole or probation. The state is reducing the security level of inmates to move them into double bunking. They also are putting 8 inmates in 5 man cells. They are trying to increase the numbers at Newberry Prison but the inmates are throwing out the bunk beds. There is a conciderable increase in the number of incidents around the state. This is because the state is overcrowding prisons to close others. Parolees are being kept on the street even though they are doing things wrong to violate their parole. The guy who robbed the 7-11s in Bay City just got out on parole on Sep 2, 09. He was in the segregation unit at Standish Max last year. This is what your state is doing for you to cut the budget.

There is also a Livingston County woman who with the help of a prosecutor fought against an inmate going on parole. She was repeatedly raped by him. He had served 12yrs of his 15-30yr sentence. His activities in the prison included getting in trouble for disobeying direct orders, insolence, unauthorized occupation of a cell, possession of dangerous contraband, theft, possession of stolen property and a substance abuse violation. His criminal history includes convictions for attempted armed robbery and negligent homicide in Macomb County. He also has a conviction of domestic violence in Livingston County involving the woman he later raped when they lived in Oakland County.

This is what they are letting out on your streets. Here are a few other facts.

Seventy-eight percent of convicted felons in Michigan never spend a day in prison.Just 10 percent of felons are sent to prison at the initial sentencing. The rest receive probation, treatment programs, and county jail.